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The offseason isn’t quite here yet for the Michigan football team, but they are already focusing on one of the most important aspects of the offseason: the transfer portal. The transfer portal will be huge for Sherrone Moore and the Wolverines as they had a lot of inexperienced players starting this year, and they will also lose some elite talent to the NFL in the offseason.
This is the first season that Sherrone Moore is the head coach of the Michigan football team, and it was an interesting one. The Wolverines finished the regular season 7-5, but they did beat both rivals as they took down Michigan State and Ohio State. That is very important, and the Wolverines have now won seven games in a row against those two schools.
Coming off of a national championship, this 7-5 season was disappointing, but we knew that Michigan was going to take a step back. However, 7-5 was a bit surprising. Still, this one feels a lot better for Michigan after beating their rivals, especially Ohio State. Sherrone Moore will definitely breathe easier this offseason after ending the regular season with that win.
Moore gets a pass for this season as it was year one and he wasn’t given a ton to work with. However, he needs to be better next year, and the transfer portal will be crucial. Here are a few guys to pay attention to.
Josh Thompson, IOL, Northwestern
The offensive line is definitely an important area for the Michigan football team to hit in the transfer portal this offseason. One player to watch is Josh Thompson who is transferring from Northwestern. Thompson is from the state of Michigan, so the Wolverines definitely have an upper hand there. Thompson is one of the best offensive linemen in the transfer portal, so this would be a huge get for Michigan.
Justice Haynes, RB, Alabama
Michigan will lose both of their primary running backs this offseason, and while they have some good backups that should be ready to take on meaningful carries next year, an experienced back in the transfer portal would be nice. Justice Haynes is transferring from Alabama, and he would be a good fit. Haynes ran the ball 79 times this season and he racked up 448 yards and seven touchdowns.
John Mateer, QB, Washington State
The Michigan football team has the top overall recruit in the country coming in as QB Bryce Underwood will be with the Wolverines next year. However, it would be smart for the Wolverines to get an experienced guy to come in and be a bridge QB. Underwood would likely play a similar role to JJ McCarthy in 2021 if he doesn’t win the starting job. John Mateer might be a stretch as it looks like he is favoring Oklahoma, but regardless, the Wolverines should snag a QB.
This is an important offseason for Sherrone Moore and the Wolverines, and it will be interesting to see what they can do in the portal.
Transfer portal overview
One of the biggest parts of the college football offseason is the transfer portal, and the festivities begin before the offseason actually starts. Teams that didn’t qualify for the postseason have entered their offseason, but there are a lot of teams that still have bowl games to play. The transfer portal opened up on December 9th, so it creates some issues for players that want to transfer but still have a season going.
The transfer portal is a massive part of college football now, and there are definitely positives and negatives to it. One of the biggest issues that people have with it is the timing of the first window. It is open in early December so players can pick a new school and start the next semester there when January rolls around. However, it does create issues as we have already seen players this year on College Football Playoff teams have to miss out on the opportunity to participate in the CFP because of their transfer.
On the flip side, the transfer portal gives teams a chance to completely rebuild their squad in just one offseason. New head coaches can come in and bring in a lot of experienced players from the jump, and it can make for a quick turnaround. Any team has hope in the offseason because of the transfer portal.
The transfer portal opened up for the first time this season on December 9th and it will stay open until December 28th. This window is the main window where a lot of the action takes place, but the transfer portal will open again in the spring.
From April 16th until April 25th, the transfer portal will be back open. That way, players can go through spring ball and have a better idea of what their upcoming season will look like. If they aren’t satisfied, they can leave. We even sometimes see players that transferred in the first window transfer again in the second window, sometimes back to their original school.
The transfer portal is a crucial part of the offseason, and we will be hearing a lot about it from now until the end of the spring.
